Dan Klitsner was good atdesigningtoilet bowl cleaner bottles , but he wanted more .
It was the early 1990s , and Klitsner was a couturier of consumer products . Those cleaners with the ergonomic neck that incline into the corner of the porcelain ? That was Klitsner . It may have made bathroom pick duty easier , but it was n’t creatively comforting .
What Klitsner really wanted to do was get into the toy business . And before long , he got his wish , birthing one of the most groundbreaking toy of the 1990s : Bop It , which fulfilled Klitsner’sdesireto design a toy that control the kid , rather than the child controlling the toy .
After getting out of the bowl cleaner stage business , Klitsner — who graduated from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena , California — went to mold for Discovery Toys design preschool playthings . One day in 1993 , he was seat in his personal studio when he startedthinkingabout shipway he could make kids move from their stationary positions on the couch and thought it would be interesting to have a remote control that check the small fry . To switch channels , a person would have to smash the hammer - shaped remote control . If they want to adjust the bulk , they require to twist a knob .
Klitsner called them Remote Out - of - dominance and modernize a paradigm featuring a braid , pull , and “ bop ” activity . He showed it to toy company but could n’t get anyone interested . He added an LCD filmdom to the hammer , but that did n’t quite work , either .
or else , Klitsner adjudicate to do away with the connecter to the television altogether . Rather than the kid using the toy to check something , the toy would control the player , barking command to twist it , overstretch it , or bebop it — which is where Klitsner came up with the name , and which is often styled with an ecphonesis degree .
He designed a prototype craft out of froth and shaped like a baton . He used his own voice for statement . If a instrumentalist failed to fill in a task in the proper chronological succession , the familiar “ D’oh ” refrain of Homer Simpson was heard . ( Klitsner knew he ’d never be able to keep it in the final product ; he just wanted to evidence how the miniature could plunk on histrion . )
Bop It was inspired in part bySimon , the electronic secret plan introduced in 1978 that expect player to observe a unaccented sequence on the twist and then seek to press buttons in the same successiveness . More importantly , Bop It was not only playfulness to play with — it was fun to watch others attempt to play . When thespian stumbled , a voice heckled them . ( “ Fail - tastic , my human being . ” )
This clip , miniature company were open . Klitsner check to certify it to Hasbro , which unloosen it in 1996 to strong sales event . The ship’s company warned Klitsner that toys have a shelf life , and that Bop It may not be farsighted for this world — three years at most . But Bop It resist pattern by ingest solid sales in the second year . Two years after that , a revise version , the pretzel - shaped Bop It Extreme , saw a 50 percent increment in unit sold even though it cost $ 5 more . Klitsner did n’t just have a successful toy — he had a enfranchisement .
Several iteration of Bop It have since been released , include Bop It Smash ( a boob - shapedtoythat features Light and sounds ) , Bop It Blast , Bop It Bounce , and tie-in - ins with the Bratz skirt line andTetris . A 2016 versionaddedSing It and Selfie It commands to better meditate the times . Most are voiced by Buddy Rubino , who took over as the vocal performer for Bop It in 2008 , a performance he once compared to his rude meter after 10 energy drinks .
And although Homer ’s dialogue did n’t appear in the ruined intersection , there was aSimpsonscrossover of sorting . In a 2009 installment , Bart , Lisa , and Maggie are playing a plot call Bonk It with such enthusiasm it make Homer to slew off the road .
